YEKATERINBURG, November 18. /TASS/. Russian and Norwegian scientists are planning to count polar bears for the first time in ten years, a deputy chief of the Russian Arctic national park said on Tuesday.

Bears will be counted in the Russian Arctic in August 2015. The previous census was conducted in August 2004 when polar bears were counted on the Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land archipelagos in the Arctic, on the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia's Far East and in Alaska.

"Ten years ago the number of polar bears stood at 3,000," Maria Gavrilo said.

She said that some bears could have died of starvation in ten years or migrate to other territories following seals, their main prey.

The United States and Canada have already conducted a similar research in their Arctic territories where the population of polar bears decreased from 1,600 to 900 in ten years.